AUSTRIA (22.04.18)

Ahead of my trip to Austria I caught up with Sebastian, Sonja and Barbara about their lives with ME there. I had lots of support from the CFS Hilfe group and although nobody was well enough to meet on the day, I had some nice messages throughout the build up. Vienna Marathon have pledged to post a follow up article after the race about my challenge on their Facebook page but unfortunately couldn't do anything in advance due to existing charity commitments. We flew over from Heathrow the day before the marathon, checked into our hotel and picked up the race number from the Expo at Messe Wien. It was 32C when we landed and the forecast for the race was extremely hot without any real breeze which made me just adjust my target time of sub 4:20 to sub 4:50 - a sensible move as it proved.

Start

The race started below the Imperial Bridge and after a couple of U-bahn changes we arrived and hung around for an hour or so in the shade behind a van. I finally got started 20 minutes after the elites to the tune of Strauss' 'Blue Danube' as we climbed the bridge with amazing views of the river. The last time I heard classical music was at Prague with the fantastic 'Vltava' by Smetana on my first marathon, it does really relax you on the line. It was very heavily congested for the first 4-5 miles as the group consisted of half marathon runners who'd clearly over-reached and were running for fun in groups clogging up the course. I struggled for any space and kept accidentally clipping the heels of those in front of me until we got down the long stretch of Lassallestrasse and turned to run into the sun passed Venediger-Au Park. At this point hundreds of runners leapt off the course and ran under the trees next to it. I debated whether to join them for a bit. On the one hand it was shaded and a smart move, on the other, if I missed running over a timing mat I'd be disqualified. I did a bit of both then got myself back on the course and decided to just suck it up.

There were some good crowds but sadly the usual blaring ghastly Euro-pop coming from speakers along the stretch, no substitute for a live band if you ask me! An hour gone and I was running much slower than back in the UK, maybe 1.5 minutes per mile slower. A combination of being sensible and suffering already with the heat. I switched the watch to heart rate and tried to ignore the temptation to care about time, if I could keep my heart rate under 160 and at less than 4.5 aerobic difficulty then I'd be able to get round without dying. I ran alongside a guy with his face painted as the Joker from Batman, already his face had melted pretty well, the temptation for him to not wipe the sweat off must have been immense. The water stations across the first 9 or 10 miles were 5 or 6 runners deep. Elbows were flying, used cups being grabbed off the floor and plunged into recycling bins with hose-pipe water, ugly scenes and frustrating as there was no choice but to stop and get involved in the scramble. The crowd were pretty lively shouting “Hup Hup Hup,” at us, a bit odd but kind of funny! Kids were high-fiving the sweaty runners and there were a few people with spraying bottles trying to help out, it was good that they knew this was a tough one.

Middle

Up to 12 miles around the Museum quarter and I could feel myself getting a bit dizzy. I've had that feeling a few times in hot races, your head feels hot inside and a bit fizzy. I dropped down to walk through the water station, stuck my head under a tap and took on at least 4 cups of blue Gatorade with some salt tablets I was trialling for the first time. I felt better and got going again after my first organic energy gel, they're good them. I got to halfway at 2hrs 14, around 30 mins slower than usual and decided to focus on trying to better my last crazily hot race in Luxembourg, I had to have a goal or I'd have been out there all day. There wasn't much shade after going by the University but Phil Collins 'Two Hearts' lifts my spirits, no idea why they played that. A fair few people were walking at this point including the half-marathon and relay runners, it was pretty annoying as they didn't follow the race etiquette of moving to the side of the road so I had to do a lot of weaving.

I passed by a couple running as clowns and a guy dressed as a shower gel bottle, fancy dress surely was a bad idea in 30c but fair play to them for sticking to their guns. There was some pleasant looking cheerleaders on a truck dancing to more Euro-pop and more rattle shaking spectators before the route headed out towards the Stadion area of the city. I saw Cat in the crowd and she handed me a pre-loaded electrolyte drink which I pretty much downed in one. I told her of my new goal to beat Luxembourg (4.58) and carried on shuffling past people drinking outside the bars. At this point I took a couple of ibuprofen as my quads felt heavy and my back started to stiffen up and I reached for my Ipod for the first time. There were some good signs out on the course including 'Touch the sign for super powers', 'Cheer up, you paid to do this' and 'Pain is temporary pride is forever'. Another walk through a water station and I grabbed a banana and saw yet another runner collapse near to me. Ambulances were everywhere, even early on in the race, although I was pleased not to see any resuscitations like I did in Ljubljana last year.

End

With the last 6 miles to go I was down to a bit of a walk-run strategy that I'd used before. I'd walk 0.1 miles and then run 0.9 miles. It worked fine until water stations got in the way, then I'd just reset the strategy and go again. The infamous switchback that I'd read so much about was coming up through Spielplatz Ameisweise with the runners on the other side of the road being at least 2 miles ahead of us. It was a dull part of the race, completely open to the sunshine and without any entertainment. Once done though it would be just 2 miles to the finish where I knew I'd get a spike of adrenalin to get me finished. Schuttelstrasse seemed to take forever to get through until the route turned away from the Donaukanal and back into the centre. I was on for sub 4.50 which was just about enough of a goal to get me interested in giving up on the walk-run tactics and jogging down past Stadtpark on Parkring towards the blue carpet finish.

​My watch buzzed at the 26 mile mark and I had rather hoped to see the finish line but it would be another 0.5 agonising miles away. Volunteers were packing up the last water station which I thought was a bit unfair for us slow runners and the thousands behind us still to finish and spectators were now trying to cross the course in front of us. Grrrr. After an eternity I was on the carpet and waving at Cat near the finish line. I managed to find some energy and got over the line just under 4hrs 50 mins. Not a great running performance and a bit disappointing given how hard I'd trained but I'm just not a hot/warm weather runner. Over the line I grabbed a medal (they ran out later I would find out, despite many runners not finishing), a bottle of water and a pint of alcohol-free beer. Great to get off the course and tick another one off and time for a beer and a big late lunch before heading to the airport.